One of the biggest free agents to change teams this offseason was former Las Vegas Raiders running back Josh Jacobs. The former NFL rushing leader signed a four-year contract with the Green Bay Packers but had many other suitors in free agency.
Among the suitors was the Kansas City Chiefs. Despite the fact that Jacobs was leaving the Raiders, he couldn’t stomach the idea of playing for the team’s biggest rival.
“[The Chiefs] were trying to get me hard,” Jacobs told The Athletic’s Dan Pompei for an August 29 column. “But there was no way I was going there. I feel like once you are rivals with somebody, you have a genuine hate for them. I couldn’t see myself in that color. And besides, I never wanted to be the guy that joined the dominant team. I want to be the guy that beats the dominant team.”
Jacobs was 1-8 against the Chiefs in games he played so he had a lot of time to build up animosity against the team. Kansas City has won back-to-back Super Bowls so that had to be appealing for a player who has never won a playoff game. However, going to the Packers gives him the chance to be a bigger reason for why the team wins.
Josh Jacobs Wasn’t Happy During 2023 Season
Jacobs was in a contract year during the 2022 season. He responded by leading the NFL with 1,653 rushing yards and had 2,053 yards from scrimmage. He was also named First-Team All-Pro.
Instead of rewarding Jacobs, the Raiders placed the franchise tag on him, which led to him holding out for all of training camp. He eventually agreed to a one-year contract that paid him $11.8 million. However, he still wasn’t happy with the situation and wasn’t in the best head space last season.
“Trust was missing then,” Jacobs said. “I wasn’t really mentally there, not happy to be there. Obviously, I loved my teammates so I was going to give everything I had for them, but I felt like I had been slapped in my face.”
Jacobs was not nearly as productive in 2023 and finished with a career-low 805 rushing yards.
Josh Jacobs Was Willing to Take Less Money
While the trust with the Raiders was broken heading into last season, the team fired head coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler. Jacobs was a big fan of head coach Antonio Pierce and was willing to give new general manager Tom Telesco a chance.
According to Jacobs, he didn’t want to leave Las Vegas. In fact, when the Packers offered him a four-year, $48 million contract, he came back to the Raiders and was willing to take less money to stay with them if they added some incentives. Telesco turned him away.
“I really didn’t want to up and move,” Jacobs said. “But I could tell that [expletive] was over with.”
It doesn’t seem like the Raiders were in the ballpark of what Jacobs wanted to get paid. They may have not had much interest in re-signing him at all. It’s fallen out of fashion to pay running backs big money but time will tell if Las Vegas made the right move by letting one of the faces of the franchise walk away.
